Tag Archives: Blackboard

Blackboard at Tri-C was upgraded to a new version and new hardware on May 19-20, 2016. While there are not many changes to the functionality and design for faculty and students, here are a few new and newly resolved issues to note:

New Known Issues

Discussion List View vs. Tree View: The Tree View option in Discussions doesn’t persist when going into a thread and back out. The view will revert to List View

Grade Center Columns show Extra Decimal Places: The decimal places for percentages are displaying out to 4 places in the Grade Center for weighted and calculated columns.

Newly Resolved Known Issues

Collaboration (Virtual Classroom & Chat) Not Available – Resolved: The Collaboration tools are again available in Blackboard. Faculty who need collaboration functionality for their courses are still encouraged to use WebEx, a powerful online meeting and collaboration tool available at the College for both faculty and students. For more information and to get started with WebEx, visit http://itservices.tri-c.edu/network/webex-for-faculty-and-staff.html

Cannot Include Received Attachment when Replying to or Forwarding Course Message – Resolved: Faculty and students replying to or forwarding a course message can now include the received attachment with their reply message.

Other Issues

Delayed course creation – Resolved: Course creation was delayed after the Blackboard upgrade, but is now fully functional. There may be continued slight delays due to higher than usual course request volume before the summer semester begins on May 31.

Blackboard Learn is being upgraded on May 19-20. Starting at 12:01am on Thursday, May 19th and continuing through May 20th, Blackboard Learn will be offline and unavailable to students, faculty and staff. The upgraded Blackboard Learn system will be available again by Saturday, May 21st.

When the upgrade is complete, faculty and students will not experience significant differences from the functionality and design of the current version, but the system will be operating on new hardware.

If you need assistance with Blackboard Learn before, during, or after the upgrade, the Online Technical Support team can be reached via phone or email:

The College is upgrading to a newer version of Blackboard. When the upgrade is complete, faculty and students will not experience significant differences from the functionality and design of the current version, but the system will be operating on new hardware. Please take note of the following upgrade activities as we work to implement the upgrade:

Starting at12:01am on Thursday, May 19th and continuing through May 20th, Blackboard Learn will be offline and unavailable to students, faculty and staff. The extended outage will allow the infrastructure changes to be completed. Note that faculty preparing course sites for Summer will not be able to access the system during the upgrade.

The upgraded Blackboard Learn will be available again on Saturday, May 21st.

If you need assistance with Blackboard Learn, the Online Technical Support team can be reached via phone or email:

So, here’s one final blog post from yours truly before I head off to New Hampshire!

Couple quick things:

Even though some folks are moving around, eLi is still here! Tri-C will be hiring a new Assistant Dean to lead eLi and fill the open positions in the department in the coming months.

If you have inquiries of a technical nature, please route them through eLifacultysupport@tri-c.edu or by calling 216-987-4257. This includes requests for extensions for training for faculty to teach online, course combinations, etc.

If you have departmental questions, our own Dr. Holly Craider is serving in an interim capacity in addition to her primary role as Director of Curriculum, and can be reached at her Tri-C email.

A big giant thank you to everyone at Tri-C who I’ve had the pleasure and honor of working with. Our common mission is close to my heart. I truly believe that we have, together, improved success for our students online through implementing quality design and innovative learning models. Please always feel welcome to reach me – I am sashatberr on just about everything, and at gmail. You can also find me at www.edusasha.com.

One of my favorite quotes these past few years has been this one (generically labeled “Chinese Proverb”):

“When the wind of change blows, some people build walls, others build windmills.”

Starting on December 18, faculty who want to view their course sites as students will only be able to do so using Student Preview. Student Preview enables faculty to see a course as a student without having to log out or use a separate browser session. Student Preview provides an easy way to view your course, take a test, view grades, or make sure that content is appearing when and as it should.

To enter Student Preview mode, click on the icon/button to the left of Edit Mode on your Blackboard course site:

The top of your course site will show a message that Student Preview mode is ON:

You can now navigate your course as a student. When you are done, you can exit the Student Preview by clicking the Exit Preview button at the top of the page.

When exiting Student Preview you have some options (see image below). For example, if you wanted to see how a test or other feature would work as a student, but would not want the results remaining in the class (e.g., showing in the Grade Center), you have the option to delete the user data YOU as the student user created. If you wanted to keep a record of that information, you can instead keep the preview user data you created in your student preview for future viewing as an Instructor. Finally, you can have Blackboard remember your choice and not ask again.

Some faculty are currently using faculty-as-student accounts to view their course sites from the student perspective. These accounts will no longer be available for use after December 18, 2015. The Student Preview tool provides an additional benefit: the best part about the student preview mode is that faculty can use it anytime. You do not have to wait until the course starts to view your course as a student with Student Preview!

We’ve been blogging about success rates for online courses for the past few days. And wouldn’t you know it…

So I’m at the Microsoft Store attempting to get my Surface Pro 3 updated because it is not behaving properly. I strike up a conversation with a woman in a similar situation and – I am not making this up – it turns out she is a Tri-C student, graduating this May. She asked me what I did at Tri-C, and when I told her I worked in the online division, hilarity ensued.

Her reasons for choosing online:

Saves time

Works with her schedule

As a busy mom, that’s important!

Another Tri-C success story! Congratulations to Rebecca who will graduate in May!

There is a new tool for faculty called the Student Preview now available in Blackboard.

Faculty who want to view their course sites as students can now do so using Student Previewwithout having to log out or use a separate browser session. Student Preview provides an easy way to view your course, take a test, view grades, or make sure that content is appearing when and as it should exactly how your students would see it. To enter Student Preview mode, click on the icon/button to the left of Edit Mode on your Blackboard course site:

The top of your course site will show a message that Student Preview mode is ON:

You can now navigate your course as a student. When you are done, you can exit the Student Preview by clicking the Exit Preview button at the top of the page.

When exiting Student Preview you have some options (see image below). For example, if you wanted to see how a test or other feature would work as a student, but would not want the results remaining in the class (e.g., showing in the Grade Center), you have the option to delete the user data YOU as the student user created. If you wanted to keep a record of that information, you can instead keep the preview user data you created in your student preview for future viewing as an Instructor. Finally, you can have Blackboard remember your choice and not ask again.

Some faculty are currently using faculty-as-student accounts to view their course sites from the student perspective. The Student Preview tool provides the same experience, but with an additional benefit: the best part about the student preview mode is that faculty can use it anytime. You do not have to wait until the course starts to view your course as a student with Student Preview!

Great article The Impact of Findability on on Student Motivation, Self-Efficacy, and Perceptions of Online Course Quality!

“Findability” is a component of “usability,” whereby students can find essential course components. Results included that courses with low findability reported lower levels of self-efficacy and motivation.

Interested in learning more about how you can get more involved with Quality Matters at Tri-C and improve findability in your course? Contact Sasha.Thackaberry@Tri-C.edu.

Congratulations to Professors Mike Piero and Raj Mohan on having their courses Quality Matters recognized this summer!

Professor Raj Mohan’s Course English 1020 achieved QM recognition. This is the second course that Professor Mohan has had recognized by Quality Matters – she also has had English 1010 recognized.

What does earning Official QM recognition mean?

The Quality Matters Rubric is a set of 8 general standards and 41 specific standards used to evaluate the design of online and blended courses. To become officially QM Recognized a course: 1) Completed review by a 3-person trained team, including one Master Reviewer, one Subject Matter expert and at least one External Reviewer), 2) Meet All of the 3-Point essential standards, and 3) Earn a total overall score of 81 out of 95 points. Learn more about the course review process on QM’s site here: https://www.qualitymatters.org/reviews.

Please join us in congratulating Professors Mike Piero and Raj Mohan for their excellent work on behalf of student success online. The Quality Matters recognition process is a rigorous one, and both have had a huge commitment to the design and building of their courses. I’d also like to congratulate our instructional designers who worked with them to prepare – Cheryl Knight form Metro Campus, and Rachel Harmon from Westshore Campus.

Want to get involved?

If you are interested in getting more involved with Quality Matters at Tri-C, please contact Sasha.Thackaberry@Tri-C.edu.

A few important updates for the beginning of the new summer term are below. If you use Blackboard for any modality (online, blended/hybrid or as a supplement to your F2F course) please read the entire post as it may greatly assist your Fall setup.

YouTube Videos: As you may have been aware, this summer there was a national problem with YouTube videos that were added to Blackboard using the Mashup tool. Blackboard recently released a fix which we tested and then implemented in our system. YouTube videos that have been added to courses through the Mashup tool should now work!

You will now find links to these faculty tools after logging into Blackboard now that the Blackboard Tab is no longer on My Tri-C Space. These links are located in the left-hand channel:

Course Site Request (courses are not created automatically, you need to request their creation)

Cartridge Load Request Form

Blackboard Incompletes Tool

Manage Blackboard Support Users

Bb Server Status Log

Respondus & Studymate Author Download

We encourage you to watch the brief video about Global Navigation located just above those resources as it greatly improves how you can manage your courses including filtering discussion board posts from multiple courses and notifications when students submit assignments.

ITS, TechNow, and Blackboard Help: ITS is now running Blackboard help, branded TechNow in combination with other college technology support. You can still contact help for Blackboard at the same number: (216) 987-4257.

In related news, you may have noticed that the company Blackboard may be exploring a sale. Blackboard has been sold before, most recently in 2011. An acquisition would impact them at a corporate and structural level and should not change your day-to-day experience. All of your files and content will be maintained in the same way.

As always, please “Follow” us by entering your email into the field on the left-hand sidebar of the eLi blog at www.elearningandinnovation.com(picture on left.) You’ll receive automatic emails when news and upgrade notices are posted.